Heathrow Airport

Despite privacy concerns, authorities will start using full-body scanners at Heathrow Airport, one of the world's busiest, in about three weeks, the British government announced Tuesday. The move reflected the determination of Prime Minister Gordon Brown to deploy the controversial technology as soon as possible in the wake of the failed attack Christmas Day on a Detroit-bound airliner from Amsterdam. Such scanners are already being tested at a smaller English airport. Home Secretary Alan Johnson told lawmakers that body scanners would have stood a "50% to 60% chance" of detecting the explosives concealed by alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in his underwear before he boarded the holiday Northwest Airlines flight.

More planes began taking off from airports across Europe on Tuesday after days of enforced idleness, but a new cloud of volcanic ash moving toward the continent has thrown into doubt any resumption of normal service. Air France said it would operate all of its regularly scheduled long-haul flights out of Paris on Tuesday, as well as some shorter hops within the country and to destinations in southern Europe. Lufthansa Airlines said it would go ahead with dozens of intercontinental flights out of various German airports, many of them bound for the U.S. The carrier said it would run some domestic routes and intra-European journeys also.

And the award for best stalling tactic goes to . . . a coalition of environmentalists, scientists and actors -- including two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson -- who are determined to scupper plans by the British government to build a new runway for Heathrow Airport. The motley crew has bought a small plot, about an acre in size, in the heart of the development area where an extra runway would be situated.

Despite privacy concerns, authorities will start using full-body scanners at Heathrow Airport, one of the world's busiest, in about three weeks, the British government announced Tuesday. The move reflected the determination of Prime Minister Gordon Brown to deploy the controversial technology as soon as possible in the wake of the failed attack Christmas Day on a Detroit-bound airliner from Amsterdam. Such scanners are already being tested at a smaller English airport. Home Secretary Alan Johnson told lawmakers that body scanners would have stood a "50% to 60% chance" of detecting the explosives concealed by alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in his underwear before he boarded the holiday Northwest Airlines flight.

The British government on Tuesday lifted its longstanding ban on new airlines at London's Heathrow Airport, easing the sale of London routes owned by two cash-strapped U.S. air carriers. The decision doesn't immediately open the door to new competition at one of Europe's most important airports, because new landing slots aren't available.

In the latest global airline alliance to take shape, Delta Air Lines and Britain's Virgin Atlantic Airways agreed Tuesday to forge a partnership that would give Delta access to London's highly coveted Heathrow Airport. Delta would become the fourth major U.S. carrier--after American, United and USAir--to serve Heathrow, by marketing and selling seats on Virgin's transatlantic flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.

The U.S.-British aviation accord clinched Monday is depressing news for British Airways, long the dominant carrier on routes between London and North America. British Airways' main competition has been Pan American World Airways and Trans World Airlines, two of the weak sisters of the U.S. airline industry. But the accord eliminates all international obstacles to the planned sale of Pan Am's landing slots at London's Heathrow Airport to United Airlines and TWA's to American Airlines.

Heathrow Airport police have arrested 22 baggage handlers after airline passengers complained that personal items had been stolen from their suitcases, police said.

A Sudanese man who was arrested for carrying bullets at London's Heathrow Airport after flying in from Washington has been charged with firearms offenses, but terrorism charges have been dropped, British police said. Alwasila Alhibr Wassila, 45, was arrested Wednesday after passing through a security checkpoint after his arrival on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Washington's Dulles International Airport en route to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

TWA Leaves Heathrow: Heathrow Airport in London experienced a changing of the guard, as Trans World Airlines pulled out and American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic Airways and Japan's All Nippon Airways flew in. TWA, which operated out of Heathrow for 40 years, had to sell its routes to American to cope with financial difficulties. It will continue to fly out of London's other airport, Gatwick.

And the award for best stalling tactic goes to . . . a coalition of environmentalists, scientists and actors -- including two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson -- who are determined to scupper plans by the British government to build a new runway for Heathrow Airport. The motley crew has bought a small plot, about an acre in size, in the heart of the development area where an extra runway would be situated.

Heathrow has always been the bad boy of European airports, an international crossroads that periodically morphs into a black hole of chaos and delay with no more provocation than a good English fog. Even by Heathrow's standards, though, the debut of the long-awaited Terminal 5 -- the spacious, $8.

Is relief in sight for harried fliers at Europe's biggest airport? Four months before Heathrow's Terminal 5 is to open, officials gave media a sneak peak at the futuristic facility, which they hope will dispel images of weary crowds searching for lost bags and waiting for late fights.

london -- Misrouted bags. Missed flights. Mystifying security rules. Welcome to your air travel nightmare: London's Heathrow Airport. For visitors passing through Europe's biggest airline hub, the summer of 2007 has been one big meltdown -- and it's not over yet. This weekend will bring Heathrow's most recent in a series of challenges as crowds take off for Britain's August bank holiday and Americans head home from vacation before Labor Day, the unofficial end of the season.

sipson, england -- Heathrow is the granddaddy of European airport nightmares, legendary for its long lines and lost luggage. But the hundreds of protesters who descended on the airport's administrative headquarters Sunday weren't furious passengers demanding better service, but climate change activists seeking to block expansion of the beleaguered facility.

British police arrested a fifth suspect Sunday in their frantic nationwide manhunt for the perpetrators of failed bomb attacks in central London and at the Glasgow international airport. Authorities also carefully searched a suspicious vehicle outside the Scottish hospital where they had taken one of the Glasgow suspects, who suffered severe burns when he drove a Jeep Cherokee into the glass entrance to the main airport terminal Saturday.

Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie and his special envoy, Terry Waite, flew to the United States today to attend two church conferences, in San Francisco and Chicago. Waite has been active in negotiations to free U.S. hostages held in Lebanon, but the trip to the United States has no bearing on the negotiations, he said at Heathrow Airport.

Authorities evacuated a terminal at London's Heathrow Airport for about four hours after a man dropped off a package near the Air Algeria and Lufthansa desks and ran away. One man was in custody in a West London police station, authorities said. Police would not discuss the contents of the package. About 2,000 people were ordered out of Terminal 2, which houses many European carriers, police said. In August, police said they had thwarted a plot to blow up flights between Britain and the U.S.

The list looks like a typical roster of suspected Islamic extremists. One man had regular contact with a close associate of the "shoe bomber" who tried to blow up a jet flying to Miami from Charles de Gaulle International Airport here. Others are accused of undergoing terrorist training overseas or associating with a North African network involved in bomb plots in Europe. Many allegedly attended sermons by radical clerics. But this is no ordinary group of suspected radicals.

Authorities evacuated a terminal at London's Heathrow Airport for about four hours after a man dropped off a package near the Air Algeria and Lufthansa desks and ran away. One man was in custody in a West London police station, authorities said. Police would not discuss the contents of the package. About 2,000 people were ordered out of Terminal 2, which houses many European carriers, police said. In August, police said they had thwarted a plot to blow up flights between Britain and the U.S.